I'm starting to wonder if Ricky is doing too much. He does so much excellent stuff for the club off the field and maybe it's affecting his coaching duties? It feels like he's carrying far more of the load than other coaches in this area.

Also, I spoke to someone in the junior fitness staff recently who was disillusioned with the head fitness team's preoccupation with strength training. This guy thought they should prioritise fitness and agility, and attributed the late-game fadeouts to the imbalance. This is a theory we've all discussed many times on this forum and is a completely baffling approach for a team loaded with massive units. But I mention it because maybe Ricky's support staff could be letting him down in areas they're supposed to be the experts in.

Before you pen your shutdown responses, I'm not giving Ricky an out for the last five years of results because I'm as disappointed as anyone and agree we need to aim higher than the "doing pretty well for a non-Sydney team" idea. Ricky is ultimately responsible for everything, so any failures by his staff still result in him failing - particularly as he probably picked all of them.

But I wonder if he's been quite as poor a coach for us as he looks from the outside.

Looks to me like BJ has been explicitly told to stay on his man - so that's what he does. Either that or it looks like the rift between him and Austin still remains. They certainly don't communicate or help each other out at all.

I think you are right gergreg. He simply stays marking his opposite oblivious to what is happening to his left. It is the complete opposite to what was happening a few years ago when we had freeways down our side lines because we played a compressed defensive line with a 'speed of a snail' slide.

In the match against Souths I don't blame BJ for the Inglis try although he missed the tackle. Inglis is just too strong and skillful with the ball. Inglis reminded me of the Mal days when a player would go high and he'd simply shrug off the defender with sheer strength. Sometimes you just have to say, 'too good'.

I didn't even blame Austin for the Cody Walker try. We all know that Austin can't defend a player with footwork, but that step from Walker was brilliant. Took me back to the days of Graeme Langlands who could do that off both feet, but it was a great example of a skill not seen so much in these days of 'power' football. Austin did give me my biggest head shaker moment though, when we 'lost the feed' to a scrum with Austin feeding the football into the scrum. The ball these days goes behind the second rowers feet. Yet he gave that great pass for Sia's try. Consistency - what's that? A fitting epitaph in his final home match for the Raiders.

I thought Sticky's post match comments, first about the sad passing of Lance Thompson and then his thanks for the NRL Hall of Fame presentation, showed him at his best. But it doesn't change the fact that his 5 year coaching record with the Raiders is poor.

edwahu wrote:BJ has awful try and line break cause stats, and that stat usually passes the eye test. Plus generally BJ and making good decisions just doesn't compute.

Still I think lots of our edge defensive issues start with our glacial slow inside men plodding out of marker, and this should improve next year with two of the worst gone. Bateman is very mobile and Guler also looked pretty good in that regard.

I do suspect BJ will come under even more pressure though as the huge target that is Austin will need to be redirected somewhere and he & Williams are the two most likely to be targeted.

This season and last, boyd and paulo have absolutely done my head in, watching them slowly get back to the line after a tackle, leaving a huge gap behind the markers. You can watch it happened every week. They’ve been much better the past two games and what do ya know, we defended well as a whole.

I heard Blake on TripleM this Sunday, and he admitted that the last 2 weeks performances were heavily down to having no pressure on them due to our season being over. He said the pressure of fighting for the finals gets to you, and that tightens up your game.

We all saw this, but is interesting to hear from one of our worst performing players.

And also interesting to hear it after Sticky insists it isn’t a mental problem.

I heard Blake on TripleM this Sunday, and he admitted that the last 2 weeks performances were heavily down to having no pressure on them due to our season being over. He said the pressure of fighting for the finals gets to you, and that tightens up your game.

We all saw this, but is interesting to hear from one of our worst performing players.

And also interesting to hear it after Sticky insists it isn’t a mental problem.

Ennis ripped these comments on Big League Wrap. Basically said the top players embrace pressure and that's why Blake isn't going to be playing NRL next year

Can someone explain to me what a sports psychologist does and how he does it

im picturing him clicking his fingers and saying when you wake you will play like mal meninga

is it possible the away teams psychologist has got them playing like headless chickens?

Same as any psychologist. They help people overcome mental barriers. Sports psychologists specialise in that area and focus on improved performance. They don't instantly turn players into immortals. They simply help them play to the level they are capable of.

It's no silver bullet. Some people respond better than others. In the Raiders situation it would be a case of bringing in a fresh approach to a problem the current staff have not been able to overcome.

If that fails then resorting to hypnosis might work.

* The author assumes no responsibility for the topicality, correctness, completeness or quality of information provided.

I heard Blake on TripleM this Sunday, and he admitted that the last 2 weeks performances were heavily down to having no pressure on them due to our season being over. He said the pressure of fighting for the finals gets to you, and that tightens up your game.

We all saw this, but is interesting to hear from one of our worst performing players.

And also interesting to hear it after Sticky insists it isn’t a mental problem.

Ennis ripped these comments on Big League Wrap. Basically said the top players embrace pressure and that's why Blake isn't going to be playing NRL next year

Can someone explain to me what a sports psychologist does and how he does it

im picturing him clicking his fingers and saying when you wake you will play like mal meninga

is it possible the away teams psychologist has got them playing like headless chickens?

Same as any psychologist. They help people overcome mental barriers. Sports psychologists specialise in that area and focus on improved performance. They don't instantly turn players into immortals. They simply help them play to the level they are capable of.

It's no silver bullet. Some people respond better than others. In the Raiders situation it would be a case of bringing in a fresh approach to a problem the current staff have not been able to overcome.

If that fails then resorting to hypnosis might work.

Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is just the train that's about to hit you.

A big part that sport psychologists work on is routine with players. This is because when the pressure is on, your go to is your routine.

Melbourne Storm are well trained at this. I was reading that for each situation there it be attack or defence at different positions on the field they have a go to attacking play and a go to defensive structure which is drilled into there play. Cooper Cronk said the other day on Fox that he struggled at the beginning with the rosters as he had never had so much freedom with his play and struggled with the change.

In comparison the Raiders have no structure or go to sets in our attack or defense. That’s why we play well in the first 65 minutes of each game as we play what we see in front of us and our game has a lot of free flow about it. However when the pressure begins to turn up after the 65 minute mark we start to crack as we don’t have the structures or routine to get us through this period and we just fall apart. We especially crumble when we drop a ball or bad refereeing decision in this period as we just don’t have the mental capacity to get through this.

It’s beyond me why Stuart hasn’t fixed this in the last 2 years. If he and his team can’t fix this, then get someone in. It’s not just bad luck, it’s purely bad coaching.

For some reason the Raiders don’t get consultants in to help. The only thing I have seen so far is he got Mal Meninga in at the start of the season to help the leadership group but that’s all he has done. It’s probably a budget thing, but also I’m pretty sure Stuart has pissed off half of the NRL community and people don’t want to pick up his phone calls.

The first step in solving a problem is admitting you have one. But that said its not as simple to solve as hiring a psych. Sometimes overthinking situations can have the inverse effect. A lot has to do with confidence. as the Great Jack gibson once remarked 'confidence. No one knows where it comes from and no body knows where it goes'. Consider Michael Morgans performances this year with last year as a case in point. What's obvious is that we do have a problem and something does need to change. We've changed part of our roster. We're changing part of our coaching team. Whether it's enough to fix our issues time will tell.

Can't think of any other examples of him calling in outside help in the last 5 years. Gets back to the original point of Sticky believing he knows the problem and how to fix it..... even though it remains broken.

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Can't think of any other examples of him calling in outside help in the last 5 years. Gets back to the original point of Sticky believing he knows the problem and how to fix it..... even though it remains broken.

Can't think of any other examples of him calling in outside help in the last 5 years. Gets back to the original point of Sticky believing he knows the problem and how to fix it..... even though it remains broken.

He fixed it 2 weeks ago. Haven't you been paying attention NR?

I'll be happy provided its not broken again come round 1 next year.

* The author assumes no responsibility for the topicality, correctness, completeness or quality of information provided.

Northern Raider wrote:Can't think of any other examples of him calling in outside help in the last 5 years. Gets back to the original point of Sticky believing he knows the problem and how to fix it..... even though it remains broken.

He hasn't said that this year.
Belcher was also at preseason for a few days with the fullbacks.

I think we need to move on and get a new coach. He's definitely made some decisions that I thought were stupid... but hey who cares. Let's just continue the meme that Stuart would rather cut off his nose to spite his face for years in some conspiratorial power play instead of doing what he thinks is best to help the club succeed.

Northern Raider wrote:Can't think of any other examples of him calling in outside help in the last 5 years. Gets back to the original point of Sticky believing he knows the problem and how to fix it..... even though it remains broken.

He hasn't said that this year.
Belcher was also at preseason for a few days with the fullbacks.

I think we need to move on and get a new coach. He's definitely made some decisions that I thought were stupid... but hey who cares. Let's just continue the meme that Stuart would rather cut off his nose to spite his face for years in some conspiratorial power play instead of doing what he thinks is best to help the club succeed.

Its not really a meme, haha. Memes are something different to a troupe. But that's beside the point...Are you saying its inaccurate to suggest Stuart is a micro-manager, and that he doesnt believe he has all the answers and can solve all the problems?

Northern Raider wrote:Can't think of any other examples of him calling in outside help in the last 5 years. Gets back to the original point of Sticky believing he knows the problem and how to fix it..... even though it remains broken.

He hasn't said that this year.
Belcher was also at preseason for a few days with the fullbacks.

I think we need to move on and get a new coach. He's definitely made some decisions that I thought were stupid... but hey who cares. Let's just continue the meme that Stuart would rather cut off his nose to spite his face for years in some conspiratorial power play instead of doing what he thinks is best to help the club succeed.

Haha, Badge having a few day with the squad in preseason is really stretching it for examples. A real cry for help from ol Stick there.

* The author assumes no responsibility for the topicality, correctness, completeness or quality of information provided.

edwahu wrote:BJ has awful try and line break cause stats, and that stat usually passes the eye test. Plus generally BJ and making good decisions just doesn't compute.

Still I think lots of our edge defensive issues start with our glacial slow inside men plodding out of marker, and this should improve next year with two of the worst gone. Bateman is very mobile and Guler also looked pretty good in that regard.

I do suspect BJ will come under even more pressure though as the huge target that is Austin will need to be redirected somewhere and he & Williams are the two most likely to be targeted.

This season and last, boyd and paulo have absolutely done my head in, watching them slowly get back to the line after a tackle, leaving a huge gap behind the markers. You can watch it happened every week. They’ve been much better the past two games and what do ya know, we defended well as a whole.

Can't think of any other examples of him calling in outside help in the last 5 years. Gets back to the original point of Sticky believing he knows the problem and how to fix it..... even though it remains broken.

He fixed it 2 weeks ago. Haven't you been paying attention NR?

I'll be happy provided its not broken again come round 1 next year.

The side has proven they can match it with the best sides. Ricky's solved the puzzle. No need for any trials next year, we just need to make sure we peak for the finals and as a bit of an in-house team building exercise the players will all grow 'Porn style' moustache until we lose a game.